Budgeting Tip: Separating Types of Expenses in your Chart of Accounts

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If your programming runs from fall to spring/early summer, you most likely have a fiscal year that begins in mid-summer, and you most likely are presently in budget season. Here are two quick tips for organizing your Chart of Accounts. What is a Chart of Accounts? A Chart of Accounts is less a chart in the visual sense than it is a list of all the account names your organization uses within its accounting software, and the reports that flow from it, to record all your financial transactions. This includes both your … Read more

If You Aren’t Selling Flex Subscriptions, You’re Missing Out

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JCA Arts Marketing recently released a study measuring subscription sales at arts and culture organizations. While prefaced with a friendly “don’t panic” notification (Douglas Adams fans will enjoy that reference), they don’t sugarcoat their findings. While the data in this study may not be immediately encouraging, we want to emphasize that we should view subscription decline as an opportunity. There are many advantages to the subscription model, but there are also many disadvantages. Let’s take the data as inspiration to move forward and innovate in this new world. What jumps out at … Read more

AmazonSmile Closing on February 20: What Your Organization Should Do Now

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Disappointingly to the broader nonprofit community, including many arts organizations, Amazon announced on January 18 that effective February 20, 2023, it is closing its AmazonSmile program. Established in 2013, the program had allowed Amazon users to designate a charity to receive 0.5% of the cost of their purchases. It had been a case study in establishing a “set it and forget it” ancillary revenue stream for charitable organizations. Supporters had only to pick their chosen charity and then bookmark the AmazonSmile landing page and without any further effort needed, the charity would … Read more